Paige Smathers- Paige Smathers
139: Your Holiday Food & Body Image Survival Guide
Molly Bahr, LMHC is a licensed mental health counselor currently stationed for a year in Haiti. She has a private practice primarily focused on individual therapy for eating disorders, disordered eating, anxiety, depression, and trauma working from a Health At Every Size lens. In addition to the private practice, she also worked at a clinic specializing in care for transgender individuals in Honolulu, Hawaii over the last 3 years. Prior to that she worked on an inpatient eating disorder unit and an IOP program for substance use disorders in New Orleans, LA. Molly utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and EMDR modalities for treatment. As a Coast Guard wife, she looks forward to seeing where the sails will take them next.
In this episode, we discuss the common struggles and concerns during the holiday season with food, body image, social stress, and more. We discuss these ideas in depth:
Diet talk: constant chatter about calories, being “bad” for eating, losing weight, the diet they’re going to go on in January, etc.
All or nothing thinking: we see this all times of year but it seems to be especially bad during the holiday season where people are promising themselves that they’ll restrict again in the new year.
Feeling worried about family gatherings and judgement or not understanding your choices around food/eating/body image: this one is HUGE for clients. Molly provides some practical advice about how to navigate these tough social situations this time of year.
Mixed messages about yummy, enjoyable food experience while everyone sits around and talks about how “bad” they’re being for eating those foods.
If this is a hard time of year because you’ve experienced loss, or you’re struggling in other ways:
Skills for navigating the holiday season. Molly provides ideas and skills to practice before holiday events, during stressful times and then after difficult situations.
Links mentioned:
Learn more about Molly at https://www.mollybahrcounseling.com/
Positive Nutrition 101 online course.
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